30 July 2015

The idea that Jeb Bush — grandson of a senator, son of a president, brother of a president, a man who has spent his entire life swaddled in the embrace of power and influence — is some kind of outsider who because he isn't tainted by Washington's ways can come in and clean up the system is inherently absurd.

16 July 2015

The United States faces, in the Middle East, many Sunni Arab countries with elites that are pro-American and populations that are deeply hostile, whereas in Iran it faces elites that are mostly hostile — or require hostility to maintain their power — and a population that is really ready for change.

In other words, America's Middle Eastern allies are mostly countries where authoritarian rulers impose deeply unpopular pro-American policies. Our greatest enemy is a country where authoritarian rulers impose unpopular anti-American policies. It doesn't sound like a situation that's particularly stable, either for us or for the Middle East itself, and indeed it's not.